Rocker, winemaker Maynard James Keenan sets Arizona roots

Spirit of Jerome lured Tool front man to state

Maynard James Keenan was losing his patience with life in Los Angeles when a friend suggested that he look into an arty little hillside town in Arizona.

"I'm from a small town," Keenan says. "I grew up in Michigan right in the middle of an apple orchard. My father had a garden that I worked in. So, living in Los Angeles wasn't quite what I had in mind. I moved there for whatever reason, and it didn't take long for it to sink in that that's not really where I want to be."

The year was 1995, and Keenan was still an alternative-music icon on the rise.

His first album with Tool had been certified platinum largely based on an attention-grabbing summer with Lollapalooza, then a touring music festival.

"A friend of mine was living in Jerome," he says. "So, he suggested that I check it out. And I immediately fell in love with it. That's all it really took, because it didn't look anything like where I grew up in Michigan. But as far as the lack of traffic, the number of people and the lower-key lifestyle, it felt like where I wanted to be."

Among the qualities that drew him to Jerome, he says, were "space, clean air, being able to see the stars and see in the distance, nothing cluttering your view."

"It's a good-energy town," he says. "It's near Sedona. It's not that far from the Grand Canyon. It's a beautiful drive up from Phoenix."

And being a bit of an artist community didn't hurt.

"It's definitely filled with a bunch of crazy people that are pretty much on par with how crazy I am," Keenan says with a laugh. "So, that felt natural. It's a nice place for some honest conversation."

Jerome, it turns out, is also a nice place to open a winery and vineyards, which Keenan did with Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards, recruiting Eric Glomski as a winemaker/mentor.

"It was more of an afterthought once I started looking at the land," Keenan says of his move into winemaking. "Having traveled around the world, you start seeing similar terrain. And I'm kind of a hands-on guy, so when I had an inkling that I might be able to do that in Jerome, it wasn't very long before I was digging holes, trying to figure it out."

And it didn't take that long to figure out.

"It took longer for the red tape," he says, "and all the hoops you have to jump through to start something like that, especially in an area where people aren't familiar with it."

Making wine is actually in Keenan's blood, although he didn't find out until after opening the winery and vineyards.

"My great-grandparents and my Great-Uncle Marzo had vineyards and made wine somewhere in pre-World War II northern Italy," he says. "My tastes in wine reflect this history. It's even apparent in my choice of home. Clearly, my fathers and I are one."

In addition to proving fertile ground for his move into winemaking, Arizona has had a lasting impact on his music -- or at least the music of his latest project, Puscifer.

As Keenan, who also fronts A Perfect Circle, sees it: "The Puscifer project is definitely a reflection of Arizona and the Verde Valley. It's ground zero. A lot of the writing comes from there."

Although Tool and A Perfect Circle are still very much alive, his main musical project for 2012 is Puscifer and its latest release "The Conditions of My Parole," an album recorded, in part, among the barrels at his winery.

"We're going to be taking it out again and giving them a little slice of Arizona in every state," he says. "It's kind of our nod to being the 48th state and our centennial."

Touring plans will have to be scheduled around his other big commitment, though: He can't very well tour during harvest.

"Pretty much from August to November," Keenan says, "I'm in the winery."

Now 47, Keenan says he has lived in Arizona longer than anywhere else.

"I lived in Ohio," he says, "until I was about 13 or 14. Then, I moved to Michigan to graduate from high school. Then, I bounced around and lived in Massachusetts, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Jersey, Los Angeles. I've lived in quite a few places, but I've lived the longest in Arizona."

And he has too many roots here now -- actual roots -- to leave.

"If you're committed enough to plant vines," he says, "and stick it out to watch them produce grapes, that's a long-term commitment. So, collateral activities can kind of align themselves with you, and it ends up being a stable environment -- socially, economically -- that you count on.

"It doesn't matter what's happening in the political climate, generally speaking. People that align themselves with something as stable as a vineyard, you can actually weather the storm.

"And what we're doing with the wineries and with the vineyards, it's not something that you can outsource to China or move to Mexico. This is something that's from us, from here.

"It speaks to this very place, and I'm very excited about that, because this place is unique. It's not like any other place on this continent."

Maynard James Keenan at Arizona's Greatest Storytellers Who: Maynard James Keenan, who fronts the alternative-rock acts Tool and A Perfect Circle, will talk about life as a winemaking rocker as one of the featured storytellers at Best Fest.

Parking: City buses will shuttle festivalgoers who take the light rail to the east main entrance on 10th Avenue. Those who park near the Capitol complex can enter at the west main entrance on 18th Avenue.